Your Opinion Needed Grading XTIN project tasks

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XTIN (Extinction Level Event) is a project to create a CC licensed, “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” type movie using Blender.

If you’ve never heard of it, go to the blog -

XTIN blog

and click on links and stuff.

XTIN has adopted an Open Business model. Read more about it in this thread -

XTIN business model development

This is Open Business in action - I’m looking for your help in grading the difficulty of the tasks involved in making our first poster. The poster will be sold through Deviant Art and, through a software system of Sam Rose’s devising, profits will be automagically divided up and sent into the PayPal accounts of contributing artists - guys from BA.org like aws357, Fweeb, and .:Tracer:. - who have put a huge amount of time into this project.

If you’d like to help make sure the artists are paid fairly, go through the following list and rate the tasks you’re familiar with according to their difficulty level.

As an example, in the category of “modelling,” a primitive would be a “1,” and a realistic face model able to withstand a closeup shot would be a “100.” In shaders, a basic plasticy shader would be a 1, a realistic non-SSS would be a 70 (my opinion, I made ours), and an SSS skin shader would be at least a 100 (using Blender).

In textures, a checker texture would be a 1, a photo-based texture with some retouching would be around 30, and a hand-painted texture requiring the creation of specific brushes and fitting to a non-even uv layout (like the facial skin textures) would be 50-70 or possibly higher.

The upper range of the scale is open-ended - if there’s a task difficult enough to be 1000 points, you can give it 1000 points. A difficulty level that high should probably be reserved for a job like Director or Producer that lasts the length of a project and can’t be broken down easily into smaller tasks. On the poster, jobs like Art Direction and Project Management might get that rating. And marketting, if Sam’s software works :p:D

Check through the galleries on the blog to see the quality of work done in any category so far -

XTIN blog

If this thread is successful, I may implement a community grading project on finished art assets. Quality checks all the way :eek::D!

All opinions are welcome. Thanks for your help!

Concept Art -

Overall poster design -

Character Design -

Taonui, in armor and two sword types -

Black Pyramid Soldiers (male and female, two simple costume types) -

Black Pyramid Soldiers - axe, sword, spear (each) -

Snake Pyramid Soldiers (male and female, two simple costume types) -

Snake Pyramid Soldiers - axe, sword, spear (each) -

Vehicle Design -

Black Pyramid Gunboat -

Snake Pyramid Gunboat -

Modelling -

Taonui

head (close up quality) -

armor (close up quality) -

sword, sticker (close up quality) -

sword, splitter (close up quality) -

hair setup (close up quality) -

eyebrow, eyelash setup (close up quality) -

eyes (close up quality) -

teeth (close up quality) -

Black Pyramid Soldiers

bodies (mid distance quality, each) -

heads (mid distance quality, each) -

harnesses/helmets (mid distance quality, original modelling) -

harnesses/helmets, adjusted to additional body types (each) -

sword and dagger (mid distance quality, with scabbards) -

axe (mid distance quality) -

spear (mid distance quality) -

Snake Pyramid Soldiers

bodies (mid distance quality, each) -

heads (mid distance quality, each) -

harnesses/helmets (mid distance quality, original modelling) -

harnesses/helmets, adjusted to additional body types (each) -

sword and dagger (mid distance quality, with scabbards) -

axe (mid distance quality) -

spear (mid distance quality) -

Black Pyramid Gunboat

modelling, (mid distance quality) -

Snake Pyramid Gunboat

modelling, (mid distance quality) -

Dunes

modelling -

Cloth Sim for Snake Pyramid Soldiers

modelling to position, not true cloth sim (each) -

Shaders

skin (non-SSS for now) -

eye (all parts) -

hair -

teeth -

tongue -

armor, taonui -

sword, splitter (modification of taonui armor shader) -

sword, sticker (modification of taonui armor shader) -

black leather

Black Pyramid Soldiers, helmet (modification of taonui armor shader) -

Snake Pyramid Soldiers, helmet and other costume metal (same shader, modification of taonui armor shader) -

Snake Pyramid Soldiers, cloth -

Snake Pyramid Soldiers, sword handle (modification of cloth shader)

Snake Pyramid Soldiers, weapon metal (modification of taonui armor shader)

Sand -

Blood -

Textures (include spec, bump, and other types as needed)

Taonui

head (close up quality) -

armor (close up quality) -

sword, sticker (close up quality, use Taonui armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks) -

sword, splitter (close up quality, use Taonui armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks) -

eyes (close up quality) -

tongue (close up quality) -

teeth (close up quality) -

Soldiers

bodies (mid distance quality, use Taonui’s skin textures as base, adjust for race, each) -

heads (mid distance quality, use Taonui’s skin textures as base, adjust for race, each) -

helmets, costume metal parts (use Taonui’s armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks ) -

leather texture -

cloth texture -

sword and dagger (mid distance quality, with scabbards, use Taonui’s armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks, each ) -

axe (mid distance quality, use Taonui’s armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks, each ) -

spear (mid distance quality, use Taonui’s armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks, each ) -

Black Pyramid Gunboat

textures, (mid distance quality, use Taonui’s armor texture as base, add weathering, wear marks, each) -

Snake Pyramid Gunboat

textures, (mid distance quality) -

Dunes

textures -

Lighting -

Light one inanimate scene, from one angle -

Animation -

Create biped armature -

Rigging (each) -

Posing (each) -

Placement of props -

Renderer -

Split scene into manageable layers, render and check for errors -

Matte Painting

background and compositing

Project Management

lots of stuff like this for the duration of the project, keeping tabs on
the artist’s progress, updating blog -

Art Direction

directing and judging the acceptability of the artists work -

Graphic Artist -

XTIN logo design -

“Extinction Level Event” logo design -

XTIN symbol design -

Marketting/Accounting -

The stuff Sam will be doing -

Blender Foundation -

points to be tithed to Blender Foundation, or in exchange for advertising on Blender3D home page -

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Ok… let’s stick with things I am familiar with…

Modelling -

Taonui

head (close up quality) - making a head is probably the most difficult thing… mostly because people spot default easily… 100

armor (close up quality) - depending on the desired design… Taonui’s armor had some real difficult places to do… 100

sword, sticker (close up quality) - tools from Blender like Array made it far easier than what I thought previously. The design is relatively simpler than the armor. 60-65

sword, splitter (close up quality) -

hair setup (close up quality) - with current tools, whether you use geometric plane or particles, I would rate respectively 75 and 100 (I was tempted by 150 but no…)

eyebrow, eyelash setup (close up quality) -

eyes (close up quality) -

teeth (close up quality) -

Black Pyramid Soldiers

bodies (mid distance quality, each) - makehuman make it easier to generate 45-50

heads (mid distance quality, each) - no need to have close up photo quality but still UV unwrap to do… 65

harnesses/helmets (mid distance quality, original modelling) -

harnesses/helmets, adjusted to additional body types (each) -

sword and dagger (mid distance quality, with scabbards) -

axe (mid distance quality) -

spear (mid distance quality) -

PS : might be edited later if something is wrong :slight_smile:

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It will be rather hard to grade all the items, but I agree with aws357 for the most part. I think the more detail the model is and the harder it will be to create, the more points it should get. But without concept art for every piece, it will be hard to tell.

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aws357 - I think you’re a bit high on the sticker sword. It wasn’t 60% as difficult as Taonui’s armor (the modelling of which is currently only about 2/3’s done :eek: ).

I can definitely see complex pieces like Taonui’s armor having a higher difficulty rating than a realistic face. Once you have one realistic face, it’s possible make new ones from it in a day or two. I can’t imagine Taonui’s armor being modelled in a day or two under any circumstances. I think it’s more like 2 weeks minimum with both of us on it.

I’m finishing up concept art for the snake pyramid soldiers, after that I think all we need is concept art for the snake pyramid gunboat.

Rate what you can, and I’ll take a stab at the rest.